The After-Treatment Blahs

by Bob Riter

When treatment
ends, there’s an
expectation that
everything in your
life will suddenly
revert to normal,
but everything
doesn’t return to
normal right away.

For many people, the months
following cancer treatment are
more difficult than the treatment
itself. During treatment, your “job” is
to be in treatment. You’re busy with
appointments, and you see the same
doctors and nurses almost every week.
At the same time, friends bring you
meals, family members take on extra
duties, and you’re left to focus on getting
better.

Then you have your last radiation
treatment or chemotherapy session.
You get hugs and congratulatory handshakes.
There’s an expectation that
everything in your life will suddenly
revert to normal.

Let me pop that bubble: everything
doesn’t return to normal right away.
You might even wonder, “Is my new
normal the same as my old normal?”
Your body is tired. Your brain is muddled.
You’re worried that the cancer
will come back. And you miss the safe
cocoon of your chemo nurses and radiation
therapists.

What makes it especially hard is that
the people around you sometimes expect
you to bounce back almost immediately.
While they were happy to help you during
treatment, they may now see you as
recovered and expect you to carry your
old load. “C’mon, Bob. You finished
chemo on Friday. We need you as linebacker
against the Giants on Sunday.”
(Maybe I’m fantasizing just a little, but
hey, it’s my article.)

Realize that recovery is not a straight line. You may feel
better one day but worse the next. That’s normal.

Bob Riter

The post-treatment blahs are so
common that I try to prepare people for
them in advance. This is what I suggest:

♦
Expect a post-treatment slump. Rather
than being a time of celebration, the
last treatment is sometimes the beginning
of a funk. If you expect that funk,
it won’t be so difficult.

♦
Realize that recovery is not a straight
line. You may feel better one day but
worse the next. That’s normal.

♦
Expect recovery to take several
months. Some people say that the
recovery phase takes as long as the
treatment phase. It took me a full year
following chemotherapy to really feel
like myself again.

♦
Expect to be acutely aware of every
ache and pain and to immediately think
the worst. Every headache seems like
an ominous sign of a brain tumor instead
of just a normal headache. Every
cough is feared to be a lung metastasis
instead of a normal cold. These worries
become even more pronounced before
doctor visits and tests. You scan your
body for the slightest indication of anything
bad. Everyone goes through this.

♦
Realize that cancer will continue to
be front and center in your life for several
more months. It’s what you think
about in the morning, at night, and
throughout the day. But this fades with
time. The second year after treatment
is much easier than the first year after
treatment.

♦
Expect your family and friends to
have less time to listen to your concerns
about living with cancer. Though
they’re eager to get back to normal as
quickly as possible, there’s a good
chance that you still want to process
what you’ve been through. Joining a
support group or speaking with a therapist
can be especially helpful during
this transition phase.

♦
Most importantly, be patient with
those around you, and especially
with yourself.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Bob Riter is a breast cancer survivor and
the executive director of the Cancer Resource
Center of the Finger Lakes, an
organization that provides support, information,
and community to people affected
by cancer in and around Ithaca, NY. Bob
also writes a regular column about living
with cancer for the Ithaca Journal.